Abstract
This paper describes an exploratory trial conducted with 14-15 year-old students in English state schools who were studying business start-ups as part of a course in ‘Business Studies’. The intervention uses a ‘Story Grammar’ strategy to improve students’ reasoning by increasing the frequency and complexity of their use of ‘connectives’ such as ‘when’, ‘if’ and ‘because’. The analysis reports positive effects of the intervention on students’ understanding as judged by the use of a standard examination style mark scheme, and the number and complexity of connectives used by students in their extended writing. By reporting effects on immediate target variables we are able to examine the causation with precision. Effects are reported through standard t-tests and effect size. We also discuss the design of the experiment and comment on its practicability as a model for investigating effects of classroom interventions.
Original language | English |
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Pages (from-to) | 71-81 |
Journal | Educational Review |
Volume | 68 |
Issue number | 1 |
Early online date | 3 Jul 2015 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - Jan 2016 |
Bibliographical note
Jo Bentham is Leader of Business & Enterprise at King Edward VI High School, Stafford and a doctoral student at the University of Birmingham.Peter Davies is Professor of Education Policy Research and Director of Research at the School of Education at the University of Birmingham. He is also affiliated professor at Stockholm University.
David Galbraith is Lecturer in Education at the Southampton Education School. David is a member of the steering committee for the International Society for the Advancement of Writing Research and is manages the EARLI SIG Writing listserv. David is Associate Editor of the open-access Journal of Writing Research, a member of the editorial board for the journals Learning and Instruction and Educational Research Review.
Keywords
- Business education, narrative, RCT
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Social Sciences(all)